To Catch a Thief
by iflip4dolphins
Summary: Banished to Earth under the supervision of his brother, Loki finds that mortals might not be as weak as he originally thought when he comes up across a thief whose services SHIELD desperately needs. Post-Avengers. Loki/OC
1. Prologue

_Disclaimer: I sadly do not own this fandom. _

* * *

The throne room was so full of tension it felt as though one could cut it with a particularly dull knife. The presence of two strong, stubborn personalities was a bit much for the ancient room, which practically vibrated beneath the flinty glares each party was leveling at the other. Father and son stood nose to nose, each refusing to break eye contact until the other gave in to their silent demands. After a long moment, the elder finally broke and turned away.

"What makes you believe that this is the correct course of action?" he rumbled, reminding Thor of an old, grumpy bear. "This idea of yours carries much risk."

Ignoring the second statement, eyes still locked on his father, Thor replied with, "It worked for me."

A snort. "You and he are very different individuals," Odin pointed out. "Why would a punishment that worked for you be effective for your brother?"

"Correct and forgive me if I am wrong," Thor began carefully, "but is not the point of his punishment to correct his mentality? To show him how he strayed from what he once was and to bring him back to that mindset?"

Odin turned to look at his son, thoughtfulness softening his one eye. "Yes."

"Then do this, father," Thor urged. "Compassion comes so easily to most humans – nobody here cares about him aside from you, Mother, and I. If the others think about him it is in anger and hate, and even if it is not he is hardly likely to believe that. And he is still so angry! He is hardly going to learn anything if he remains here, surrounded by love he does not believe in and anger and hatred that feeds his own. Down on Migard, free from all this, he may finally be able to let go of his anger and start to feel again."

The impassioned speech burst from him without second thought, obviously surprising his father. Thor knew very well that he wasn't a great thinker, which was likely what had shocked Odin so, but this was less about logic and more about knowing Loki and how he worked – which, granted, few people did these days. Still, it would take an idiot of monumental heights to spend as much time in the company of his brother as he had and not see just how being in Asgard affected him. From there it was no stretch of the imagination to figure out just what had to be done about it.

"From the mouth of babes," Odin muttered. Thor narrowed his eyes, but forced his muscles to stay relaxed. To someone as old as Odin, everyone likely seemed to be a child, whether they were or not. Taking offense at his words was folly. Odin regarded Thor with an expression of dawning respect. "Wisdom indeed. I am impressed."

Thor refused to bask in the praise. "Will you consent?"

Odin took his time in replying; Thor tried to conceal his impatience as best he could. It seemed to take years, though in reality it was only a few minutes, before Odin finally said, "Very well. I consent. However –" and here he fixed Thor with an impenetrable gaze that Thor was unable to even try to break – "_you_ shall go as well. I am not about to send Loki out from under my supervision without somebody to keep an eye on him."

"He will not like that," Thor murmured.

"He will not have a choice," Odin returned.

* * *

Most would-be burglars stayed far, far away from Stark Tower. The building was heavily fortified by all the latest technologies, and some that hadn't even been released to the wealthy public. The most formidable defense that Stark had, however, was his personal little AI program, a program that not only ran the defenses with the watchful twenty-four hour per day attentiveness that only a computer was capable of, but one that had a defined, albeit programmed, personality. JARVIS wasn't an obstacle that most people were willing to come up against, even if they dared risk angering Stark.

Valerie Turner was not most people.

Weeks of preparation had brought her to this point. Schematics of Stark Tower, gotten from a far less than savory source, though trustworthy enough, compiled with her own talent for breaking and entering had gotten the thief all the way into the heart of the place that Tony Stark called home – his main computer system.

Because talking would attract attention, she kept silent as she went about her work, thankful for Stark's predilection for advanced technology, as the touch screens he used did completely away with clacking keys that could give her position away. Though technology wasn't precisely her strong point, her understanding of encryptions was on par with her ability to understand and ferret out deception, which meant that with the proper equipment and no few tricks, it was a complex, though possible, task to steal what she was after.

Hours passed in the darkness while she worked by blue screenlight, occasionally biting her lip in frustration and thought when she ran into difficulties, which, sadly, was often. Though she didn't dare say anything and risk 'waking' up JARVIS, the curses in her head could have made the most hardened of sailors blush if he'd heard them. It wasn't until dawn threatened to poke its sleepy head up that she finally succeeded. With a smirk of pride and glee, she took the specialized USB drive with her stolen prize, and slipped out of Stark Tower.

If anyone had been watching, all they would see was a disheveled woman with a rope of braided blonde hair leaving through the main doors with a touch of reluctance and a shirt that revealed a hickey on her neck. A closer look wouldn't have revealed the makeup origins of the fake lovebite, but nevertheless, Valerie tugged at the shirt to try to cover it up as though she were embarrassed. The best covers never broke, not even when there was nobody around to appreciate it.

It wasn't until she was back in the safety of her own apartment that Valerie relaxed, and with a grin to rival that of the Cheshire Cat himself, she drew her loot from the purse and sank down into her couch cushions, twirling it slowly and holding it up to the light to admire the sleek silver casing that held such a valuable prize. "Well then, Stark," she murmured. "Let's see how much you miss your toys."

* * *

_A/N: I know, I know, there wasn't really any Loki in this chapter. Don't worry - you'll have your fill of the trickster soon enough. I know for a fact that he'll be showing up next chapter! So, what did Valerie steal? How will Stark react? And just what does Loki have to do with it (since we all know he's going to get himself involved somehow)? Does anybody even care? Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you'll stick around for the rest of the story! _


	2. Dance of the Magpie

_Disclaimer: As much as I would love to, no. The only thing I own here is my little thief._

* * *

"You want me to what?"

Disbelief colored Fury's voice as he faced the gods. Thor was directly in front of him, though a polite enough distance away, dressed in what Fury assumed was his typical battle-armor, sans the cape. Behind him stood his brother. Out of the two of them, Loki was the one that had changed the most. The trickster god certainly didn't look well; Fury remembered how pale he'd been and now he looked even paler. His expression was masked into one of complete disinterest, but the very fact that he hadn't once even looked in his direction told Fury that the god was anything but calm.

"I would like for S.H.I.E.L.D. to house us for the time that we are on Migard," Thor repeated his request calmly. Fury raised the only eyebrow he had.

"And just why would I do something like that?" he wanted to know. "You, yes. But your brother? The last time he was here he tried to destroy us. Give me one good reason I should harbor an enemy of Earth, and maybe I'll consider it."

Loki snorted softly. Fury turned the full force of his formidable glare on the trickster god, but he was still studiously looking away from the one-eyed spy. He held the glare for a moment longer before turning his attention back on Thor, still keeping an eye on Loki out of the corner of his eye.

"He isn't an enemy of Earth," Thor argued.

"He killed over eighty people," Fury reminded Thor sternly. The god flinched at the reminder, but Fury's attention was on Loki, whose eyes flickered towards him for one moment before resuming their previous position.

"Well, yes, but –"

"And how many have you killed?" Loki interrupted quietly, finally turning his pale gaze on the spy. When Fury didn't reply, Loki's lips quirked slightly into a faint smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Consider little Natasha and her ledger, if you will. Do you really have the right to complain about that?"

Fury's jaw tightened. "The situations are completely different," he ground out, "as you know."

If Loki had been still before, now he was a frozen statue. No emotion showed on his face at all, not even in his eyes. "Perhaps they were," he said after a moment, his eyes darkening. "Still. That simply means that you cannot possibly imagine my own situation." Now his lips twisted into a smirk. "They are, as you said, completely different."

"Brother!" Thor said sharply, turning to give Loki a look. Though Loki caught the look with a momentarily angry one of his own, Fury didn't see any signs of repentance in the trickster. "This is not helping matters."

Loki opened his mouth to reply, but whatever he was about to say was cut off by the ringing of a cell phone. A lesser man might have sighed; Fury just looked at his phone and closed his eye momentarily. He flipped it open and put it to his ear. "Mr. Stark. This better be important."

"Oh, it is." Stark sounded terse. "JARVIS is gone."

"Gone? What do you mean, gone?"

"I mean gone," Stark snapped. "Stolen. From my house, from my suits, from everything." Fury tried to ignore the intense look that Loki leveled at him as Stark continued to talk, his voice getting louder and louder. " My security system is perfect, and that's not an exaggeration. I've had people try to break in before, and they've never even come close to the sidewalk by my house, let alone get inside. This place is a technological fortress. So you tell me how somebody could get in and steal my AI."

Now Fury did sigh. "Turner," he muttered.

"What?"

"I think I know who stole your computer program," he said.

"AI. Artificial Intelligence. Come on, Nick, it's not that hard to remember," Stark corrected, annoyance oozing from every nuance of his tone. Fury barely managed to keep from rolling his eye. The man was a genius, but sometimes Fury questioned his own decision to bring him into the Avengers Initiative. Then again, Stark had every right to be annoyed – and this was a very serious problem. What Fury knew of the suit and the AI called JARVIS told him that the suit wouldn't work without the program, and if a crisis happened and Iron Man was needed, it wouldn't end well.

"Did you get any security footage?"

"A little. Not a lot. Just some woman leaving my place fussing with her shirt." Stark's tone was positively acidic. "If she hadn't stolen my AI and I weren't with Pepper, I might even be tempted to sleep with her. She looked pretty cute on film."

Fury just shook his head. "It might take a while to get your AI back, Mr. Stark," he said reluctantly. "I'll contact you when we do."

Before Stark could say another word Fury snapped the phone shut and put it back in his pocket before he succumbed to the temptation to snap the thing in two. He fought, and failed to suppress, the urge to scowl. "Something wrong?" Loki asked, a silky amusement sliding through his words. The glare Fury shot at him could melt solid steel, but Loki remained unruffled.

"No."

"Really? I could have sworn I heard something about Tony Stark's little pet program being stolen." His pale eyes gleamed with unmistakable interest. Before Fury could respond, Thor spoke up, leveling a glare at his brother.

"He will not cause trouble," Thor vowed. At Loki's quiet huff, he amended, "He will not cause serious trouble. His magic has been sealed away and cannot be used."

Fury's only response was silence. With a long-suffering sigh, Loki stepped forward to come face to face with the spy for the first time. "If only to stop his prattling…" he muttered with a glance back at Thor. "It seems you have a slight problem," he continued, turning back to Fury. "Allow me to help."

"Help. You."

It was Loki's turn to raise his eyebrow. "Yes. Help. Your little thief problem?" He smiled. "I can retrieve the stolen AI if you let me look at the files you have on this pick-pocket."

Fury crossed his arms firmly across his chest. "You expect me to trust you?"

"No. I expect you to be intelligent and take the help you desperately need. Or is that expectation misplaced?" Loki's eyes narrowed. "You have no chance of finding this thief and stealing back what they stole, and you know it. I, on the other hand…" He intentionally trailed off and raised both hands in a gesture that clearly articulated what he hadn't vocalized. Fury's frown deepened. Loki let his hands dropped and made an exasperated noise. "Really. Thor is – regrettably – my keeper, and though he may be many things, he is not a liar." An annoyed look crossed his face. "He's quite terrible at it, actually. If you must trust someone, then trust him and let him delegate the task to me."

There was a long pause while Fury digested this. Loki finally broke it by asking pointedly, "Just how many of your employees do you trust?"

The barb struck home, and Fury nodded once, conceding the point. "Fine. This is your only chance."

The smile that spread across Loki's face was obviously fake. He swept out one arm and bowed mockingly, his lengthy coat flaring out behind him as he did so. "That's all I ask."

* * *

Once he'd gotten the information that Fury was willing to share with him (Loki knew he wasn't giving him anywhere near the amount of information that he knew, but it didn't really bother him that much. He did have everything he needed to find her, after all.) it hadn't taken Loki long at all to figure out just where the elusive thief would be hiding. The knowledge he currently had of her might have been slight, but it had been more than enough to bring him to the conclusion that she would be here, in Stark Tower.

He was pleased to see that his conclusion wasn't wrong.

Warnings to Stark to stay out of his way had been heeded; the man wasn't unintelligent and had decided to take Pepper out on what promised to be a very long, very expensive date. Despite the fact that they could argue away an entire day, Stark had realized that it was probably not a good idea to stick around for the inevitable fighting match that would come up, particularly without the use of his suit. Besides, Loki didn't like the man, and hadn't relished the thought of spending any amount of time with him at all.

Rather than search the tower top to bottom, he started at the bottom, in the garage. From what he'd heard, this thief liked a challenge, but wasn't particularly inclined to flaunting successes. Still, the temptation of returning to the scene of the crime was one that all criminals found hard to resist, and in this case, it would be viewed as yet another challenge to overcome. Once Loki was down in the garage, it didn't take him long at all to spot the intruder. She lounged on the hood of an electric blue car, her casual clothing unrevealing and her golden hair pulled into a lengthy braid that had been pulled over one shoulder.

"Magpie, I take it?" he asked as she caught his eye. Her lips compressed into a thin line.

"Fury," he heard her mutter. Her next words were louder. A complaint if ever he heard one, and the content made his lips twitch. "Why couldn't he have left well enough alone? Or at least given me a nickname that didn't imply that I'm attracted to shiny objects."

She slipped off the hood of the car with a sigh and gave him an appraising look. "So. Fury sent you?"

Loki snorted. "Hardly. I offered my services. The fool was intelligent enough to know when he needed help."

She tossed the braid over her shoulder and crossed her arms. "I don't recognize you."

"Does this happen often?" he wanted to know, stepping closer. She made a face.

"The idiot refuses to admit that I'm better than he thinks," she informed him tartly, matching his steps and continuing to close the distance between them. "I make a hobby of infuriating him – pun intended – and he makes a hobby of indirectly coming after me."

Now that they stood within arm's reach of each other, Loki stopped walking and watched as she drew a slim silver case from her hip pocket. "And Stark?" he wanted to know. "I can understand Fury, but angering Stark as well must be a delicious side effect."

"More or less," she agreed, holding the case to eye level. Loki refused to allow himself to be distracted, and instead took the opportunity to focus on her face. Clear, bright green eyes inspected him from behind the case, even as he did the same to her. There was a small difference in height; the top of her head came to his nose. She was lithe, however, and the way she held herself told him that this was a woman used to fighting.

A challenge. His lips curled and he leaned closer to her and tilted his head so that he could whisper into her ear, "Well, Magpie, are you ready to have your wings clipped?"

His hand crept up to steal the case even as he spoke. Quick as a flash, she pocketed the device and whirled away from him. "You'll have to catch me first," she said frankly, ducking neatly out of the way as he skillfully tossed a punch in her direction. "And don't call me that!"

"What else should I call you?" he countered as they traded blows, neither of which hit. "Your little friend didn't see fit to inform me of your true name."

That got a laugh out of her as she spun around him to strike him in his back with the side of her hand. "Little?" she wanted to know. Loki's only response was to turn and start a barrage of offensive moves, blocking any and all of her attacks with strikes of his own. "Anyway, you should give me your name first. It's the gentlemanly thing to do."

"I am no gentleman," he warned her, eyes glinting as she pivoted and he swept his leg under hers. A less acrobatic person would have fell; she just managed to catch herself and, with what must have taken an incredible amount of core strength, flipped backwards and onto her feet again.

"Good," was her slightly breathless reply. "Gentlemen are boring."

At that, he smirked, and then the two engaged in a dance of the battlefield, each striking out at the other. Part of Loki's mind was detached, analyzing and musing about the woman he was fighting, getting all the information he could out of this encounter. By now it was a natural reflex, as natural as breathing to the trickster god, and the information he was getting was intriguing, to say the least. For starters, she wasn't aiming to hurt him, just disable him, as far as he could tell. None of her blows had been hard enough to do more than bruise, and when she aimed for pressure points, it wasn't with the intention of severely injuring him. Her style was more defensive than offensive, which was interesting – she certainly had the skill to fight back, but she chose to block far more often than not. And she was acrobatic, incredibly so. It hadn't taken her long to regain her breath at all from her flip, and she'd done several more since.

"I commend you, little Magpie," he finally said when their dance had drawn them close to each other again. "Few are as skilled in the art of evasion as you seem to be."

"Being hit hurts," was her prompt reply. "I try to avoid that."

To dampen the gleam in her eyes, Loki tripped her, and, before she fell, grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and pulled her close. To his chagrin, he could only hold her for a moment before she hit a point in his wrist that made his fingers tingle, weakening his grip so that she could slip free. "I'm better at stealing than I am at fighting," she informed him loftily, slipping behind him.

"I noticed," was his wry response as he whirled in place to face her. A thread of an idea came to him and he narrowed his eyes at her in a clear challenge. "If you're such an excellent thief, then prove it. Steal my brother's hammer." His lips twisted into a slight sneer at the word 'brother'. She looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Maybe," was the light answer he got in return, before she closed the distance between them again and the two resumed the fight. At this point, it was more of a waiting game than anything else. Loki had never been trying to hurt her, and now the fight had evolved into an intricate game during which he waited for an opportunity to pin her somehow to get at JARVIS. He frowned slightly, blocking a punch. The problem was that he had a feeling that she was waiting for something too, and he didn't know what it was. Oh, she couldn't hurt him, and he was positive that she wouldn't try, but still. It was irritating.

As it turned out, he didn't have to wait long to find out what she had in store for him.

Their little game brought them perilously close to the wall. His coat scraped against it as they fought, which Loki was not pleased about. Just how had she managed to pin him against the wall anyway? Still, she had, and as he tried to get away from the wall, she did something unexpected. Flipping backward, her braid of hair whipping about, the thief landed several feet away from him and threw out both arms. Silver flashed from her fingertips.

Three knives sliced through the air and drove themselves into the wall. Each blade had caught the fabric of his clothing. One was by his shoulder, the other by the crook of his right elbow. The final one actually touched his left wrist with the flat of the blade.

Pinned to the wall indeed. He bowed his head slightly in acknowledgment of his loss. She smirked, and walked up to him. When she was within a foot, she stopped, and took the silver device out of her pocket again, eyes traveling over his body, admiring her handiwork. Though he had the strength to rip himself free, something stopped him. It took him a moment to figure out what, but once he had, a smile crept across his face. Of course. This was a game, and he liked games. Particularly ones of skill and intelligence. And this was her move.

Of course, he could cheat, but where would the fun in that be?

The woman stepped closer to him and placed the case in the palm of his left hand, carefully wrapping his fingers around it. Once that was done, she looked him straight in the eye. "Tell Stark that the next time he wants his toys back, he can come get them himself," she told him, eyes narrowing. With that she turned on her heel, called without looking back, "Take care of my toys, will you?" and tossed something on the ground; Loki's eyes watered in the smoke that welled up from whatever it was she'd set off. When he could finally see again, she was gone.

He jerked his right arm free from the dagger. It took more force than he'd been expecting, and a chunk of drywall went with it. The knife clattered to the ground and he pulled out the other two. About ready to shove the dratted computer program in one of his many pockets and leave, he hesitated. After a moment, he picked up the knives and carefully slid them into his pockets, making sure that they wouldn't slice through his coat, before he finally left.

* * *

_A/N: Guys, look. It's Loki. Our little drama queen had some fun this chapter, didn't he? I hope I've gotten everyone in character; it's a constant worry of mine. If I ever mess up, let me know? Anywhosies, the next chapter should be just as interesting, and I promise you that our favorite trickster god will be doing more than just making an appearance. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!_


	3. All Aboard

_Disclaimer: Ah, if only..._

* * *

By the time Valerie got back to her apartment, she was trying very hard not to limp. "I'll say one thing for him," she muttered to herself as she sank down into her armchair and carefully took off her shoes and socks. "He certainly packs a punch." That kick he'd given to her ankle had been hard enough to leave it swelling. Experience told her that it'd be black and blue within hours, and from the other hurts she was feeling, Valerie was sure that more than just her ankle would look like a blueberry before the day was out.

Though most people would probably put ice on it, Valerie knew better. A hot bath, that was what she needed first and foremost. It would soften up the forming bruises so that she wouldn't be so stiff she couldn't move come morning. Ice would come after that. With a groan, Valerie reluctantly heaved herself up off of the chair and, ignoring the blinking of her answering machine, went straight to the bathroom and started running the water.

Once she was submerged to her neck in hot water, steam fogging up the mirror, Valerie finally let herself relax. As her muscles relaxed, her mind whirled around the very odd encounter she'd just had.

She'd been hoping that Stark would have the guts and the intelligence to come after her himself, but honestly, she wasn't surprised that he'd gone to Fury. The super spy sadly knew her better than most people did and it wouldn't have been too difficult for him to figure out where she'd stashed herself away after taking the AI and getting a quick breakfast. And she knew that Fury would never deign to come after her himself, but that still didn't explain the complete stranger that had shown up to get JARVIS instead of a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Granted, she didn't recognize most of the agents, but this man was just so different there was no way he was one of them.

S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were trained to get the job done whatever it took. Very rarely did they venture outside of their sphere of duties. This man hadn't had the air of somebody taking orders, and besides, he himself had said that he wasn't there under orders, which meant that Fury had found someone willing to help him as long as he let him do it his way.

Her lips turned upwards into a wry smile. The entire fight had played out like a game – neither of them had been entirely sure how to play it at first, but once the rules had been established they hadn't been broken. It was so refreshing to find someone willing to play with her! The people she usually got coming after her were all such stick-in-the-muds. None of them were intelligent enough to verbally spar with her, but this man? He was certainly intelligent, and unless Valerie was very much mistaken, he was also clever, which was a rarity.

It was time for her to do a little investigating, see if she couldn't find out just who this man was.

With a regretful sigh, Valerie pulled herself out of the cooled water, toweled herself dry, and wrapped a dark robe around her slim body. "I wonder if S.H.I.E.L.D.'s updated their security yet," she mused, leaving the warmth of the bathroom to finally go pay attention to her insistently blinking answering machine. She could start her little search in the morning. There was no rush.

To her intense irritation, the first three voicemails were for someone named Henry. Her finger descended on the delete button with no remorse before any of those messages played all the way through.

_"Ugh. Val, I know you aren't going to be happy about this. Believe me, I'm not either. I didn't even do anything this time! I'm serious! Anyway, this is my call. Bail's, like, a thousand dollars or something. I don't remember the exact number. You don't have to come bail me out, though. In fact, don't. I can take care of myself. Pick up your phone next time, would you?"_

Valerie pushed the replay button as she wandered into the kitchen to put together an icepack for the worst of her bruises. Her little sister's surly voice floated through the apartment, curling around Valerie like a snake. By the time the message played itself through, she had an icepack pressed to her ankle. After a moment's thought, she pressed save on her machine. It bleeped once in acknowledgement before moving on to play the next message. Her landlord's voice started to play and she immediately pressed delete.

_"We need to talk."_

Valerie froze, her finger hovering over the machine. The short message was anything but sweet, and it left Fury's voice ringing in her ears. A scowl crept over her face. "What, can't berate me over a phone message?"

Her finger hit the delete button so hard she nearly jammed it. "Fine. We'll talk." She fell into her couch and lifted her legs up onto it until she was lying comfortably across it. "And here I thought I'd actually have the weekend free."

* * *

Contacting and convincing Natasha to get someone to give her a discreet lift into S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters had been a lot easier than Valerie had anticipated. If it hadn't been for their shared profession history, she wouldn't have dared, but the few jobs she'd done had taught Valerie that the spy would probably be willing to help her irritate Fury if the chance arose. As this was the perfect chance, Valerie had decided that a phone call was in order, and had been pleasantly surprised at how well the conversation had gone.

She didn't know the name of the man driving the helicopter that had come to pick her up, but it didn't much matter. What was important was that Natasha wouldn't send a snitch to fly her up, so there was no chance of Fury finding out about her little surprise visit.

The uneventful ride ended with a smooth landing. The pilot hadn't tried to talk to her during the entire trip, and thankfully he didn't say anything as she slipped out the hatch and made her way down the relatively empty hallway, her 'borrowed' uniform disguising her to any S.H.I.E.L.D. agents she crossed paths with. It didn't take her very long to reach the control room, and despite the fact that Fury was up on the platform with the large table, talking to three men, it was easy enough for her to keep herself from being seen by him as she tapped the shoulder of one of the agents and took his place at the computer station.

As she tapped at the keys, Valerie kept an eye on the spy and his companions. Stark was obvious, what with his smug attitude that carried across the entire room. The blonde-haired man she didn't recognize, but the third – oh, the third she was sure she'd know anywhere. His dark hair was just as neat and tidy as it had been when they'd fought, a fact that struck Valerie as horribly unfair.

She didn't bother trying to listen in. The subject matter was dull and expected anyway; Stark was angry about her stealing JARVIS and complaining about it loudly to Fury, who was attempting to placate him. The blonde one was interjecting every now and then with comments that really weren't helping Stark's temper issue, and the pale one kept silent, watching the conversation with an amused look on his face.

The computer dinged in her headset and Valerie smiled. She took a second to adjust the microphone before using the computer to turn off all the other headsets in the room and connect hers to the PA system. "Really, Fury?" she said, eyes narrowing in satisfaction as her voice echoed out of the speakers and the man in question started. "Magpie? I never said you could tell anybody else that name."

"Who is that?" Stark demanded. Fury ignored him, which was, as far as Valerie was concerned, the best course of action.

"For someone so smart, you ask some really stupid questions," she commented idly, continuing to tap on the keys and act like she was actually working on something. Before Stark could reply to that, she continued with, "Come on. Stupid questions, stupid names… I'm sensing a theme here, Fury. Tell me, do you collect idiocy or does it just come to you?"

That earned her a smile from the pale man and a deep sigh from Fury. "Valerie –"

"What, going to call me by my name now?" She crossed her arms, annoyed. "You know how much I hate that ridiculous nickname. And you're really spreading it around? If you wanted to piss me off, I promise you, you've succeeded."

"Would somebody get her off the intercom?" Fury raised his voice to ask. Immediately the shocked agents at the keyboards started to tap away at it, trying to get control of the system back. With a mental sigh, Valerie took off her headset, set it down on the desk, and stood up.

"You could have asked nicely." The thief tossed her braid over her shoulder as she made her way up to the platform. Instead of stopping in front of the spy that she'd come to talk to in the first place, Valerie went straight past him, making a beeline for the pale man in the green coat. She stopped roughly a foot away from him and folded her arms. "Well?"

"'Well' what?" was his sleek response. "Starting at the beginning of a conversation as opposed to the middle of one is surprisingly helpful."

She rolled her eyes. "My knives," she reminded him tartly. "I asked you to take care of them. Did you, or am I going to have to replace perfectly good steel throwing knives?"

"I'm sorry, but are you the one who stole my AI?" Stark interrupted before the man had a chance to respond. Valerie smiled a very tight-lipped smile.

"Excuse me for a moment." She turned to face Stark. "I really don't have time to deal with you right now. So. Let's cut to the chase. Yes, I stole your AI, no, I'm not sorry, and yes, that beard makes you look like an idiot."

She turned back to her original conversation partner before Stark even had the chance to reply. "Knives?" She paused for a moment. "A name would be nice too, seeing as how you didn't bother to give me one the last time we met."

"His name is Loki," Fury interrupted tiredly, Valerie nodded thoughtfully.

"Lovely name." She took a step closer to Loki, letting her arms fall to her sides. "Do you have my toys or don't you?"

"I'm afraid I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about," Loki said, regret painting his tone lightly. Valerie narrowed her eyes at him.

"Liar."

"Valerie, was there a reason you came here?" Fury wanted to know, obviously trying to distract her. Valerie didn't reply for a long moment, instead keeping her eyes fixed on Loki's. She finally turned to look at the half-blind spy.

"You wanted to talk," she said simply. "I figured I'd save you the trouble and come up here for my tongue lashing."

Fury didn't react except to let a sharp breath out his nose. "Come on, Turner. I've got a little present for you."

She smiled innocently as she followed, her hands brushing against Loki's coat as she did so. "Is it shiny?"

"Point taken, Turner," was the irritated reply she got in return. Her innocent smile morphed into one of quiet pleasure as she flipped her knives, stolen back from the man she'd left their care to, into the sheathes she wore at her waist. Natasha leaned against the hallway wall right outside the door that they passed through.

"Valerie," she said with a nod. Valerie returned it.

"Natasha."

Fury let out a groan. "I should have known you helped her in."

* * *

_A/N: I think I broke my promise. I'm sorry! I swear it wasn't intentional! That aside, this chapter is also shorter than the last one, and I'm sorry for that too. Regardless of all its dificiencies, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter anyway. More Loki will be showing up soon, and next chapter we get to learn just why Fury wanted to talk to Valerie. I have a feeling it's about more than just her little theft of two chapters ago. Thank you for reading, and I'll see you next chapter! _


	4. Calling in a Favor

_Disclaimer: I haven't owned it yet, and I still don't.  
_

* * *

Valerie didn't specifically recognize the room that Fury led her to, but the layout was familiar enough. Computer screens were plastered on the windowless walls, bright lights blazed out from overhead fixtures, and a round table sat squarely in the middle of the smallish room, three chairs shoved in around it. Fury pulled out a chair and sat down; after closing the door, Valerie followed his lead, choosing the seat directly across from him. "This is different," she said lightly. "Usually you'd just start yelling."

"And usually you don't sneak up here because of a phone call."

"Touché." She paused for a moment, spinning in the wheeled chair to take a real look at the room. The screens were on, and each showed something different. One was obviously meant to make her feel guilty, as a video of her and Loki fighting among Stark's massive collection of expensive cars played across the monitor. The others held what looked like documents and pictures of people she didn't recognize, and a few had other videos playing. None of them had sound. Valerie leaned back in her chair, crossing her ankles beneath the seat as she kept her eyes on the fight. It was almost hypnotic, in a way. The way they moved made it look more like an intricate dance than anything else. "Tell me, if you'd gotten me on the phone, would you have tried to convince me to come up here?"

"Yes." She turned to look at him as Fury sighed. "And I have a feeling that you wouldn't have come if I asked you too, so maybe things turned out for the best."

She snorted. "Of course I'd come. Debt, remember?" Acid dripped from her tone as she mentioned her debt and her lip curled in a grimace. "That aside, I know you've got a little lecture stored up for me. Might as well get it out of the way now."

Fury didn't laugh, but his eye crinkled in amusement. Valerie's eyebrows jumped. That certainly wasn't an expression she'd ever thought she'd see on his face, let alone an emotion she thought he could actually feel. It made her feel unsettled. As far as she was concerned, Fury was a humorless, uptight, annoying man who refused to let her pay off her debts and she didn't like having that perception challenged. "I should have a lecture for you," he acknowledged. "but I don't. You wouldn't pay any attention anyway."

"You're right about that."

The amusement was replaced by a grimmer look that relaxed her. That was more like the Fury she knew and disliked. "The point is that we have a situation on our hands, and you're the best one to work on it."

"You have a situation on your hands," Valerie corrected, somewhat testily. "I'm not part of S.H.I.E.L.D. It's your problem."

He didn't bother to reply to that, though Valerie didn't really expect him to. Instead, he continued to explain what the situation was. "With one exception, these screens all have information on an ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Colleen Hargreaves is an espionage specialist with a particular interest in firearms. A few years ago, she betrayed S.H.I.E.L.D., then vanished off the map despite our best efforts to trace her. A few weeks ago, she resurfaced. We don't know what she's planning, but we know she managed to get her hands on some very sensitive information that she can't be allowed to keep."

"A trigger-happy spy with a grudge against S.H.I.E.L.D.," Valerie translated. "Joy."

His lips thinned. "Essentially." He drew a rod out from his jacket and placed it on the table. Valerie leaned over and picked it up, snapping the thing open to study the face of the woman on the screen as her basic biography popped up. Unlike Valerie, Colleen had a severely angled face with one of the most stubborn chins she'd ever seen before in her life. Black hair framed her face in a short bob. The information on the side of the screen gave her name and a brief summary of information that Valerie completely ignored.

After a long moment, Valerie sighed and put the device back down, leaning her elbows on the table and lacing her fingers together beneath her chin. "Going to tell me what this sensitive information is?"

"No."

"Figured." She narrowed her eyes speculatively. "So what is it you want me to do? Steal this information back?"

Fury shook his head. "Not yet." He paused, evidently trying to figure out how best to phrase his request, and Valerie immediately knew that she wasn't going to like this. "What I want – what I need – you to do is get all the information you can on Colleen. Where she is, what she's doing, if she's recruiting, anything and everything you can get your hands on."

Well, she had known she wasn't going to like it. From the look on Fury's face, he'd known the same thing. This didn't help Valerie feel any better about the request. "Are you insane?" she asked flatly. "Give the job to Natasha. This isn't a job for a thief; this is a job for a spy. You've got those. Use them."

Fury's jaw tightened under her glare. "What I need is someone with connections," he told her harshly, slamming his palms against the table as he stood. "Someone who can get in and out of the underworld without suspicion."

Valerie groaned and fell back into her chair, the wheels scooting it back a few inches before she stopped it with her heels. One small corner of her mind was glad that she wasn't wearing heels like she'd had to for her disguise the other day, but the rest of her mind was busily assaulting Fury with a vast array of unladylike insults and curses. True, she had connections, and yes, she ducked in and out of the underworld all the time as a matter of business, but that didn't make it easy. Especially not when she was trying to gather information on one particular person! And this was worse than it would have normally been, because the subject he wanted her to get information on was someone who had made an enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D., and thus would be on the lookout for anybody trying to get even a little bit of knowledge on them. Most criminals did this, of course, but anybody on the wrong side of S.H.I.E.L.D. would be triply cautious – and twice as deadly.

All in all, this was far more risky a venture than Valerie normally would have attempted. She was a thief, plain and simple. Her forte was taking things, not finding things out, and that was what she generally stuck to. Unfortunately, the circumstances didn't leave her with much choice. She leveled an accusing glare at Fury. By the look on his face, he knew very well that he'd given her a task way outside her comfort zone.

With a scowl firmly drawn across her face, Valerie tossed her hands up in the air. "Fine. I'll do it. But you're getting my sister out of jail," she warned. "I'll pay you back."

Fury nodded curtly. "Fine."

He left the room, closing the door firmly behind him, leaving Valerie alone in a room filled with screens. She groaned and aimed an annoyed look at the door. "He always has to have the last word," she muttered angrily, reluctantly getting up from the chair to stand in front of the screens. Her eyes slid over the information that S.H.I.E.L.D. already had on Colleen Hargreaves to land on the screen that replayed her fight with Loki over and over again. Despite herself, her lips twitched upwards as she watched. She winced whenever her feet scrabbled for a proper foothold – wearing heels might have been necessary for her disguise, but they hadn't done wonders for her fighting skills. Despite the fact that the sound was off, she could still hear his voice whenever the video hit a point where they exchanged barbs.

"Just who are you, Loki?" she asked quietly, folding her arms thoughtfully to keep herself from giving in to the temptation to touch the screen. Oh, she'd do the Colleen thing for Fury, if only to get some of what she owed him knocked off, but this… this was going to be her personal little project.

She watched until the video fuzzed out and restarted, then reluctantly switched the screen off and turned her attention to the others. Like it or not, she had a job to do, and that took precedence over anything else.

* * *

By the time she'd finished soaking up all the information S.H.I.E.L.D. had to offer on Colleen, it was late. A quick glance at the time in the corner of the handheld screen that she'd shifted everything to for easier viewing made her grimace. "It's way past my bedtime," she muttered, stretching out the kinks in her muscles as she rose from the chair before she snapped the hand-screen shut, and left the room.

It wasn't the first time she'd been in this base overnight, and something told her it wouldn't be the last. Her room was located on the far side, away from anything sensitive (that had gotten a mischievous grin out of her the first time she'd stayed here. As if anything could keep her out once she decided she wanted in!) but close to the rooms that actual agents slept in. Valerie liked to think of it as a personalized guest room. Sure, it was cramped and had militaristic, utilitarian furnishings, but it was nice enough. She'd certainly slept in worse places.

Though Valerie didn't let herself get deeply into thought while she walked, exhaustion distracted her from the outside world just as much as thinking and daydreaming would have. The result of this sad fact was that when she passed Loki in the hallway, she was completely unaware of it until he actually laid a hand on her shoulder. "I do believe you were taller the last time we met."

She stopped, turning to face him. His hand fell off her shoulder; evidently he'd only put it there to get her attention. Valerie shook the weary fog from her mind with practiced ease, noting that without wearing those ridiculously high-heeled shoes, her head was not quite even with his shoulder. "That's what happens when I get put in the wash," she replied flippantly. "I shrink."

The corner of Loki's mouth shifted upwards. "Amusing," he commented. "and witty. Such a rarity. Pity that it had to be in a mortal."

The word stung at her memory, and Valerie frowned, trying to figure out the significance of it. "Sorry to disappoint," she retorted, wracking her mind for the knowledge she knew was there. After a moment, she gave up. It would niggle at her obnoxiously for a while, but she was just too tired to deal with it now. "Are you always this nice, or am I just special?"

"I told you that I am no gentleman," Loki reminded her, his voice somehow not losing the quality of fine silk despite the hard edge it had gained. "In my experience the word 'nice' tends to accompany that."

"So I'm special. Good to know."

"I wouldn't say that."

She shrugged. "Whatever." A yawn threatened to escape her; she didn't manage to suppress it, but did hide it by turning away and holding a hand up to her mouth out of reflex. "How are you not tired?" she wanted to know, turning to face him and planting her hands on her hips accusingly. "It's after two in the morning."

The smug look on his face almost made her wish that she wasn't adverse to hitting people. "I will never understand people's need to knock themselves unconscious for hours on end."

"Everyone sleeps," she told him tartly. "How else would we recharge?"

He simply smiled. Valerie groaned and shook her head, wincing when it brought a jolt of weary pain to her temple. "Fine. Be an idiot. See if I care. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to get some sleep."

"Idiot?" It was clear that Loki knew exactly what the word meant and was just questioning her use of it. Valerie didn't much care.

"Yes. Idiot. You know – moron, fool, one of great stupidity. Would you like me to continue?" Without waiting for a response, Valerie left, her head protesting the fact that she was still awake. It didn't take her long to reach her room. She picked the lock out of habit, locked the door behind her, and collapsed into the bed, too tired to be angry at the subtle insults she'd been thrown. Regrettably, her mind didn't seem to care how tired it was. It spun around in circles, dizzyingly returning to topics she was in no mood to think about. It was quite some time before she actually managed to fall asleep.

* * *

_A/N: Well! Looks like Fury needs the help of our little thief! She's got her work cut out for her on this one. Oh, and look - Loki's back to his old games of insulting mortals. Fun to read, isn't it? Thank you so much for reading, and remember, reviews feed the authoress's soul and muse. I hope to see you back next chapter!  
_


	5. Unpleasant Conversations

_Disclaimer: Oh, if only.  
_

_A/N: This is just a brief note to let you know that this is the story Theft of Grief, just renamed and re-summarized.  
_

* * *

Hard rock blasted through the relative silence of Tobias Mendal's bedroom. With a groan, the arms dealer reached over for his phone, checked the number, and frowned. Unlisted. This wasn't precisely unusual, but this wasn't his work phone – this was his personal cell. Cautiously, he flipped it open and held it to his ear. "Hello?"

"I hope you aren't drunk again."

Oh no. Toby somehow managed to suppress his groan. If there was one person that he never, ever wanted to hear from again, it was her. "Valerie. How the hell did you get this number?"

"I did some poking around," was the thief's reply.

"Of course you did." Resigned to the conversation, knowing that she would just find another way to talk to him if he hung up on her now, Toby flung his covers off his bed and made his way to the kitchen. He needed coffee to handle this. "What do you want?"

"I need information."

"On?" he asked as he started up his coffeemaker.

There was a pause on the other end of the line before Valerie spoke. "Colleen Hargreaves."

Toby actually dropped the phone in shock. It took him a moment to actually recover and pick up the phone from the floor with fumbling fingers. "What the hell do you want with Hargreaves, Valerie? A thief like you has no business being anywhere near that harpy!"

"Tell that to my employer," Valerie replied tartly. "Look, I know she's into guns, so I was hoping you'd have information for me. You're the best arms dealer I know."

"I'm the only arms dealer you know."

"Details. The point is, I need all the information you can get for me. I take it she's already approached you?"

"How did –"

"You said she was a harpy," Valerie reminded him dryly. "Certainly sounds like personal experience to me."

Reluctantly, Toby admitted that she was right. He poured out a cup of coffee and took a sip, grimacing at the taste. He added several spoons of sugar and cream, and, stirring it into the black liquid, said, "Yeah, I've talked to her. She wants a lot of weapons, Val. I don't know what you've gotten yourself into, but seriously, get out of it. You don't want to get involved with her. Trust me."

"Trust you? Doubtful," Valerie retorted. "Still, you're right. I don't want to be involved with this, and if I had a choice, I wouldn't be. So. Information, and all of it. Anything you can get me. I need to know everything about her."

"It's not going to be easy," he warned her, "and it'll take a while."

"Just get it to me," was her reply, "and then you and I can go our separate ways and never talk to each other again."

He sat down into his comfortable armchair and drank some more coffee, by now fully awake. "Look, Val – for what it's worth, I'm sorry."

There was silence on the other end of the phone. If it weren't for the fact that there was no click on the other end, Toby would have suspected her of hanging up. Not that he would have blamed her – he'd used her, and he knew how much she hated being exploited. "Just business," she finally answered, bitterness dripping from her tone. "I get it. I'm over it. Just get me what I need to know."

With that, the thief hung up on him, and Toby was left holding a silent phone to his ear.

* * *

Loki didn't know what Thor had said to convince Fury to let them ride in one of those ridiculous metal flying contraptions that mortals seemed so fond of, but he wasn't about to complain. The helicopter had landed somewhere in what the pilot claimed was a mountain range, but Loki had difficulty believing it. Compared to what was on Asgard, these were nothing more than foothills, and he said so. The pilot had shrugged. "I'm from Colorado," he'd replied with a hint of a smile that he'd instantly quelled, possibly because his memory had reminded him just who he was talking to. "The Rockies make these mountains look like babies."

Thor had thanked the pilot for his efforts before leaving the machine; Loki followed, all too happy to be out of the flying cage. He didn't let his relief be shown, however, determined not to allow his so-called brother to think that he was grateful for anything that he had a hand in. Fortunately, it took a relatively short amount of time before the pleasure Loki felt at being out in the open air withered away into dust. It seemed that Thor's idea of 'a trip among mortals' included hiking along a mostly deserted mountain path with the exception of a few mortals and their dogs.

"I fail to see the purpose of this activity," Loki finally said, breaking the uneasy silence that had reigned between them for the better part of an hour. Thor paused mid-stride and partially turned to look at him. From the look on his face, this was something he'd been expecting.

"The purpose is to get out of that stifling airborne container for a time," he explained genially, turning his attention back to the path. "You and I are both inclined to be irritable after being confined for too long."

Loki reluctantly followed, annoyed that Thor showed no signs of slowing down. He set his mouth in a scowl and glared at Thor's back. "I am no dog, needing to be taken out for a walk," he spat.

"I did not say you were."

"You certainly implied it."

Thor sighed as he used a boulder for leverage, stretching his legs as he got up over a particularly steep section of the path. "Brother –"

"We are not brothers," Loki hissed. Suppressed anger made him shake as he followed Thor's lead up the 'mountain'. He had no choice in the matter, after all. Yes, it was true that he was the superior in strength to these puny mortals, but without his magic, what was he? Worthless. The knowledge left a sour taste in his mouth as he acknowledged the word for the first time since arriving on Migard. He didn't bother to guard his face from the unpleasant change the thought was likely to bring. As a consequence, when Thor turned to face him from the higher vantage point, Loki's face was twisted into a grotesque mask of anger and disgust.

Loki paid no attention to the look on Thor's face. It would just be more desperate confusion, pity, and anger, and he had no desire to see it. "We are as good as!" Thor protested. "We were raised side by side; we learned together and succeeded together –"

"Oh, do spare me," Loki snarled. "I care not for a repeat of a conversation that happened over a year ago, particularly as you are not inclined to listen to anything I have to say!"

Thor's face reddened and he opened his mouth, likely with the intention of yelling a defensive response, but the passing by of yet another mortal clad in ridiculously bright colors, sporting a large dog attached to a leash, cut off his reply before he had a chance to make it. He went past them without any of the staring that Loki had half expected, and by the time he had vanished among the trees behind them, Thor had already turned his back and was climbing again. With compressed lips and a huff that Loki did not bother to conceal, he followed.

Always following, always behind – that was him. Loki couldn't remember a time that he hadn't been straggling along behind Thor, stuck in the impossibly long shadow that the golden boy cast wherever he went. It was true that he had no equal when it came to magic, but when it came to attributes that Asgardians – and Frost Giants, for that matter – actually cared about – well, those he was sorely lacking.

Anger curled in the pit of his stomach and he held on to it for a good amount of time as they made their way up the mountain. Thor crashed through the place, all age-old lessons in stealth forgotten, while Loki managed to keep from making any noise that wasn't attributed to breathing. The climb got steadily more difficult, until finally they were actually scrambling over rocks and between trees in what he considered to be a very undignified manner. He didn't know how long they followed the trails, nor how long the tight knot in his belly remained, but when he finally let go of it, too tired to hold onto it any longer, his body decided that it had had quite enough of this.

"Enough," he rasped, staggering to the side of the trail and leaning against a tree. Experience had taught him that anger took energy to hold on to, and once that was gone, there wasn't much one could do about it. He'd given into the emotional exhaustion before; it wasn't surprising that true anger was difficult to grasp now.

"Brother? Are you all right?" Thor went back down to him, reaching out in concern. Loki glared at him.

"What will it take to stop you from referring to me as that?" he wanted to know. Despite his very real emotional fatigue, Loki drew himself up to his full height, fixing Thor with a glare that had become infamous during his imprisonment, though he kept one hand on the tree trunk. To his credit, Thor didn't flinch. He met the glare with a steady look, breathing so even that Loki suspected him of taking lessons from Odin in how to keep his emotions in check.

"I will never stop," was Thor's quiet reply. "Brother."

He held out a hand in a gesture that was obviously meant to be conciliatory and helpful. Loki ignored the move, pushing past Thor as he started back down the trail, jaw tight. He would not show weakness. He would not accept help. And he most certainly would not forgive Thor for the slights he had suffered! Particularly as Thor was so dimwitted that he did not even understand what he had done!

He ignored the heavy sigh behind him and the clomping footsteps that followed. The sooner they got back to SHIELD and he could seclude himself away from this fool, the better.

* * *

"What is this?"

"That's what I'd like to know," Valerie answered, voice tight and arms folded as she watched the clip play through. Fury moved to stand in front of her, earning him a glare that could have curdled milk.

"You have a job to do, Miss Turner," he reminded her coldly. "This –" he waved a hand back at the screen – "is not it."

"I finished." At Fury's raised eyebrow, she rolled her eyes. "Really. I can't do anything else right now. You're just going to have to wait for your precious information. Now will you move out of my way?"

Fury didn't bother to search her face and voice for the tell-tale signs of a lie; he knew Valerie well enough to know that she couldn't lie to save her life. Reluctantly, knowing that fighting with her was a completely useless exercise, he moved. With an annoyed sigh, Valerie tapped at the screen, exchanging the video clip for a regretfully short document with a picture of Loki attached. "Should I bother asking how you got this?"

"No."

"I guessed as much." He paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. Speaking without thinking was never a good idea in his profession, and he'd found that when dealing with Valerie, it was a very good idea to keep his words in order. She might not be able to lie, but she was an expert at avoiding giving away information. "So what is this all about?" He gestured to the screen.

Valerie frowned at the screen. "Information," was her vague reply.

"That isn't much of an answer."

"It wasn't much of a question."

Fury sighed. "Fine. What sort of information are you looking for?"

She turned to look at him, propping one hand on her hip. The casual jeans and T-shirt she wore crinkled as she moved, doing their best to hide the little figure she had. "Another stupid question? I thought that was Stark's thing, not yours."

"Valerie –"

She tossed her hands in the air and growled wordlessly as she whirled to face the screen. After a long, uncomfortable pause, during which Valerie played another clip and finished reading the little biography she'd pulled up, she finally muttered, "Idiot!" before turning on her heel to stalk out of the room.

"And just where do you think you're going?" Fury wanted to know.

She didn't bother to reply before the door slammed shut behind her.

* * *

_A/N: Okay, here's the real note guys. First off, what happened to you all? I'm just curious - it looks like people have been dropping off the face of the planet. Are you all okay? Anyway, there's finally some brotherly interaction in this story. It's sorely needed, I think. And what is up with Valerie? I'll see you all next chapter, I hope! Have a wonderful day, all of you, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!  
_


	6. Decisions, Decisions

_Disclaimer: I own everything that isn't actually canon! Yaaaaaaay!  
_

* * *

To his great relief, Thor didn't try to start up a conversation on the way back to the flying base. The silence was probably very uncomfortable to his boisterous companion, but Loki didn't care. Though the silence wasn't precisely friendly, it was comforting in that it allowed him to calm himself and clear his mind, techniques that he'd learned to utilize centuries ago to help him study magic, but worked just as well as an emotional barrier. Unfortunately, it was also something that his anger had eroded, so building the walls back up were far more difficult than placing them had originally been.

By the time the helicopter landed, Loki felt drained and exhausted, not only because of his emotional outburst earlier, but because of all the energy he'd expended trying to bring that shield of calm clarity around his mind again. His lips twitched tiredly; at least he wasn't seething any longer, which had been the entire point of the exercises to begin with. There was some satisfaction in knowing that, in one way at least, he'd succeeded.

Satisfaction quickly gave way to the desire to just be alone and rest. He followed Thor off of the contraption, lagging behind so as not to get too close to him, and headed directly for the door that they had used to get in that morning.

"Not so fast." Loki paused at the tart, foreboding tone and partially turned to see Valerie push herself off of the wall and stalk over to him. It didn't take her long to reach him. By the time she had, Loki was wondering if maybe he'd made a mistake by stopping. The look on her face certainly wasn't reassuring.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" Loki wanted to know.

"The pleasure?" She placed both of her hands on her hips and glared up at him. "Oh, you owe it to yourself. Your drama. Your stupidity. But mostly you owe this little visit to the fact that _you_ –" she poked him in the chest with her pointer finger – "decided that it'd be a good idea to barge into a secret facility, kill ten people, and sink said facility into the ground all because you wanted a pretty little toy."

A chill went up his spine at the chill in her voice. Loki didn't question how she knew about this – if she hadn't managed to find the files, he would be extremely surprised – but he wasn't shocked at her tone. Everyone who knew what he'd done had reacted in much the same way. Horror and anger was a common reaction among people who didn't know him, while his so-called family had leveled disappointment in spades upon him.

For a moment, Loki considered defending himself, but decided against it. What was the point? It wouldn't change anything.

"I've seen the video footage that S.H.I.E.L.D. was somehow able to salvage from the pit that you turned that facility into."

"Technically, I had nothing to do with that," Loki felt compelled to mention. "That was Fury's doing."

Her eyes narrowed into hard emerald slits. "Shut. Up," she advised in a positively deadly tone. "My point is that it never should have happened. Video footage? Really? Even the most incompetent thief knows better than that! Even if they're stupid enough to cause a commotion, they always, always make sure they don't get caught on film! At the very least they'll destroy the cameras or otherwise erase the evidence if they _do g_et caught. But you? No!"

Loki stared at the mortal thief, shocked into silence by what she'd just said. He felt as though he'd just been wacked over the head with Mjolnir. This certainly hadn't been what he was expecting.

"And not only do you not manage to get rid of the evidence, but you cause such a mess beforehand that it doesn't even matter if you're on film or not because not only did everyone see you, but you announced yourself!" She tossed her hands up in the air in frustration. "Here on earth, we have a word. _Subtle_." Her voice dipped into a quieter range even as she emphasized the word. "It means understated. Delicate. Not obvious.

"Thieving is a subtle and elegant art. What you did? That wasn't stealing. That was taking without asking. It was about as subtle as a baseball bat to the face. Do us all a favor and never try to steal anything again, okay? Because you can't. Manipulate? Lie? I'll give you those, God of Lies and Mischief." Loki nearly choked; just where had she gotten that from? "And I'll grant that you have the ability to create the most disruptive diversions ever, but steal? No capability whatsoever. And do you know why? It's because you have no grasp of the concept of subtlety!"

Her eyes slid shut for a moment and she drew a slow, deep breath. Loki just stared at her, trying to get his brain and his mouth to cooperate so that he could say something in response to her little tirade, but by the time he'd managed to get them working together again, she'd already started to walk off. At the door she paused, and turned back to face him. "And that plan of yours to take over earth?" she called back, annoyance written all over her face, "Worst. Plan. Ever. If you wanted to convince people that you're an idiot, congratulations. You've succeeded."

With that, she left. To Loki's surprise, the door made no noise as it shut, despite the fact that she had been fully angry enough to be capable of slamming it behind her. After a moment's detached consideration, he decided that it was probably second-nature to her by now to not make noise, and promptly forgot the issue in favor of being stunned.

"Brother?"

Unaware that Thor had been watching, Loki turned to face him, too astonished to berate the Asgardian for claiming him as a relative. "Did that really just happen?"

Thor ignored the question, his brows drawing together in a concerned frown. "Are you all right?"

Loki just shook his head slowly, trying to process the rant he'd just been subjected to. "I cannot say I've ever been lectured on my methods before. Generally people choose to comment on my numerous atrocities." Faint wonder tainted his voice as opposed to the sarcasm he usually employed. Thor sighed.

"She is not normal," he decided firmly. Loki's lips twitched.

"Normal?" He stepped up to Thor's side and gave him a sideways glance. "Perhaps not. Still, she is intriguing, is she not?"

"She also dislikes you," Thor warned. "Do not try anything with her, brother."

He laughed. "And what would I try? You seem to forget that I harbor no love for mortals. Besides," he continued before Thor could interrupt and babble about how mortals were no different than they were or some other such nonsense, "I am intrigued, not interested. There are a great many differences between those two words that you would do well to learn."

"And what do you mean by that?"

"Nothing. I simply wish to make sure you understand that I will never pursue her in the manner that you mean."

"Never is a long time," Thor said softly. "You could very well change your mind someday."

"I doubt that," Loki scoffed.

"I did not say it was likely."

That drew a reluctant chuckle from Loki. "It's about as likely as the sun deciding to spin the other way on its axis," he informed the other god. "And now, if you will be _so _kind as to excuse me –" sarcasm dripped from his lips as he started towards the door, tired of the pointless conversation. Without providing an explanation to Thor, he left the spacious room and headed down the myriad of corridors, intent on locking himself in the miniscule room he'd been forced into (it bore a striking resemblance to a prison cell) so that he could sort out the entire encounter by himself.

Later, Loki would learn that part of the reason she'd railed on him was to diffuse her own tension, but for now, he remained unhappily uncertain of her motives and his feelings towards the rant, despite having utilized the majority of the night to think about it. The next four days did not improve his mood any.

Though he didn't see much of the lithe thief, what little he did see left him with an unsettled feeling in the pit of his stomach. As far as he could tell, she had no reason for showing up where she did other than to watch him. While this in and of itself didn't bother him – after all, he scrutinized her carefully whenever she appeared and to be bothered by the fact that she was doing the same would be hypocritical of him – it was irritating that he couldn't pin her down to confront her. The one time that he'd managed to stop her before she pulled her mysterious vanishing act, Fury had shown up and pulled her away, claiming that they had something important to discuss.

That had been two days ago. Since then, Valerie Turner appeared to have _dis_appeared, much to Loki's annoyance. It wasn't that he looked forward to their little stare downs, but he wanted an explanation, and it was hard to get one from someone who wasn't there.

Annoyance sent his fingers to tighten into a fist at his side as he stalked down yet another identical hallway. Despite the fact that Thor had practically ordered him to join him in another trek outside of the base, claiming that this restless pacing wasn't good for him, Loki had flatly refused. Though Thor did have a point, Loki had no desire to be subjected to any more conversations with his so-called brother. At least Thor was gone now, off visiting his precious little mortal lover.

His lip curled at the thought as he sharply turned a corner – and nearly ran right into the very woman that had been suspiciously absent for the past two days. "Oh, good, you're here." Before he could say anything, she grabbed his wrist, turned, and tugged lightly on his arm before letting go, already walking off. After a moment she stopped and turned back to glare at him. "Your feet aren't glued to the floor," she pointed out in a reasonable tone. "Are you coming?"

"And just where am I supposed to go?" he asked acidly, regaining his composure.

"Does it matter?" Her eyebrow rose and she tilted her head in a challenging manner. When he didn't reply, she sighed in clear annoyance. "I have to talk to Fury," she admitted.

"I fail to see what this has to do with me."

"And I fail to see why you aren't interested in poking your nose into it," she snapped back. "Look, if you're looking for an apology about what happened earlier –"

"I am not," Loki interrupted sharply. "Oh, I admit that I'd like to know where such a rant came from in the first place, but I do not make a habit of looking for things that I am unlikely to get."

Valerie snorted. "Right. Excuse me if I don't believe you."

His eyes narrowed. "And what, exactly, is that supposed to mean?"

"You know what it means."

Loki was surprised to notice that by this point they were practically nose to nose, but he didn't let that surprise show on his face and get in the way of the glare he was currently leveling at the blonde. A long moment of absolute silence passed between them before she sprang into action. Quick as a flash, she grabbed his wrist in her hand, whirled around, and started to pull him down the hallway. "Your skin's cold," she pointed out without letting go.

"Then let go." Loki jerked his wrist slightly, though not with enough force to break the contact. Truth be told, his annoyance with her wasn't enough to dampen his curiosity about what it was that she wanted, and besides, he succeeded in getting her to huff in annoyance of her own.

"I'll only let go if you actually follow me of your own free will."

"I could force you to let go."

"You could," she agreed. "So why don't you?"

In answer to that, he pulled his wrist free of her grip and continued to walk next to her. She glanced up at him, and he smirked at her. "Does that answer your question?"

She rolled her eyes. "Men," she muttered, pulling open a door and motioning for Loki to go through. Once the two were in, she shut the door firmly, leaving Loki trapped in a fairly spacious room with an angry Fury standing in front of the table it had in the middle. "So glad you could all join me." Valerie grinned brightly and falsely at the pair as she locked the door. "As Fury knows, one of his ex-team members has gone rogue and has decided that she's going to try to make everyone's life miserable with weapon and defense plans that she somehow managed to get her greedy little hands on."

"You're calling somebody else greedy?" Loki wanted to know, amused to see that Fury couldn't seem to decide between being angry and surprised.

He eventually settled on angry, narrowing his single eye into a glare that didn't even ruffle Valerie's composure. "What is he doing here?" Fury demanded.

Valerie ignored them both. "As Fury also knows, I've been getting him information on Hargreaves for the past week. What he doesn't know is that she's going to be hosting some sort of really fancy party to get all of her cronies and potential minions into one spot so that she can do some real recruiting."

"Is he aware that you are referring to him in third person simply to annoy him?" Loki asked curiously. She shrugged.

"It may have crossed his mind, yes."

"All right," Fury interrupted, a scowl set deeply into his face. "Valerie, what the hell is he doing here?"

"Not going to ask about how I knew about those precious schematics?"

"Turner."

"Oh, all right." Valerie sighed. "This little party that she's hosting takes place in two days. It's a fancy evening thing, and it's taking place at her base of operations. My sources tell me that she's storing the plans close by, so this party is the best chance I have to get in there and steal them back for you."

"You still haven't explained my presence here," Loki pointed out, smirking at Fury who had just opened his mouth to say the same thing.

Valerie shot him a look. "You followed me here of your own free will," she retorted. "Blame it on your curiosity."

He didn't bother to reply to that, and after a moment Valerie relaxed and nodded. "Well, the thing is, I can't get in there by myself. Hargreaves doesn't know me personally, but she'll know my reputation. I don't think she'll let me in if I show up alone – but she might if I bring someone with me." She looked directly at Loki. He grasped her meaning immediately.

"You want me to do what?" His voice sank to a slithering whisper, meant to intimidate. It didn't seem to work, for the thief just folded her arms across her chest.

"I want you to be my fake date," was her blunt reply.

"Why?" Fury interrupted before Loki could sear her ears with a series of blistering insults. "Why him? Take Barton. He's more reliable."

Valerie shook her head. "True, but Hargreaves knows him. And she'll know if I bring anybody who's part of S.H.I.E.L.D. – or affiliated with them," she warned as Fury opened his mouth. "That leaves Loki. I've been cross-checking all the databases and not a lot of people actually know who he is or what he was responsible for." She gave him a slight nod that he chose to interpret as apologetic. "And even if they did, in this case it works in our favor."

"He still isn't trustworthy."

"He's the only possible choice," Valerie informed him coldly before turning to Loki. "Besides, you're good at creating diversions. I'll probably need a couple of those to pull this thing off."

Loki just looked at her, considering what she was proposing. As far as he could tell, this plan of hers had a good chance of succeeding, but he didn't have anywhere near the amount of information he'd need if he decided to go through with it. "Do I have a choice?"

"If you're asking if I'll force you, the answer's no," she replied, then frowned as she contemplated him. "And I don't think I'd be able to even if I tried."

"You would not," Loki said firmly.

"Hold on." Loki glanced over at Fury, whose face wore an expression similar to a mule. "I haven't given my permission for this little venture yet."

Valerie snorted. "Then give it," she advised. "because unless you've got a really good reason for me not to do this, I'm doing it."

"Alone?" Loki raised an eyebrow at her and she turned to look at him, her entire body radiating determination and stubbornness.

"If I have to." After a moment, she sighed. "I'm really hoping it doesn't come to that though," she admitted.

Loki studied her for a long moment before nodding. At least this would get him off this flying monstrosity and away from his brother. "Who am I to stand in your way?"

A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, but she stopped it before she turned towards Fury. "Well?"

Fury glared at them. "I don't like this," he muttered. "What's to stop Loki from betraying you?"

Valerie rolled her eyes. "Have a little faith," she chided. "I trust him."

That came as a shock. Fury's lone eye widened and Loki stiffened. Nobody trusted him. She shouldn't; she knew what he was capable of and what he'd done. "You shouldn't," he told her, echoing his thoughts.

Her shoulders rose and fell in a shrug. "Don't try to convince me otherwise. I'm not going to change my mind."

"And if I do betray you?"

"You won't."

He stared, wondering at her conviction. Not even people who had known him his entire life trusted him, and yet this foolish little mortal trusted him after such a small amount of time? It made no sense to the trickster. He had done absolutely nothing to merit earning trust, and even if he had, they'd interacted so briefly that she had no right claiming that she trusted him. And yet, he could see in her face that she'd spoken the absolute truth. "You are not lying," he breathed in wonder.

"Of course not," she said tartly. "That's your forte, not mine."

Fury sighed, startling Loki. "I know when I'm beaten," he said reluctantly. "He's your responsibility," he warned Valerie, who smiled at him but said nothing. "As for you…" He glared at Loki, looming over him. "Watch your step."

With that, Fury was gone. Loki watched Valerie as she sighed and collapsed into one of the chairs that the room sported. She waved at one of the seats, evidently inviting him to join her. "Thanks for that."

He inclined his head slightly and chose a seat several spots away from hers. "What does this plan of yours entail?"

Her lips rose in a smile, and she leaned over the table conspiratorially as she began to lay out the plan for him. Loki found himself leaning on the table himself, resting his weight on his forearms as he listened to her speak. She was quite good at garnering people's attention, part of his mind noted, even while the rest of him considered each step she explained. When she finished, he nodded. "It has merit," he said slowly, "but there are several weak points."

She leaned back in her chair. "Enlighten me," she invited.

Loki's lips twitched. "Very well."

* * *

_A/N: **Katerinaki**, you pointed out last chapter that the spot in the middle was basically a rerun of the conversation Loki and Thor have in The Avengers. You're right, it is. And it was completely intentional, to show that their relationship hasn't changed at all, despite the year long break between the movie and this story. I promise, it had meaning!  
_

_So. This chapter. This transition. Such a pain! GAH! Anyways, this is the longest chapter yet. Amazing, huh? We found out what Valerie was up to in the last chapter, and here we not only get tons of Loki (you're welcome), but we also find out that there is a Plan in the making. I know I'm looking forward to seeing how that works out. Are you? Thank you guys so much for your lovely reviews last chapter - I am now convinced you aren't dead. Yay! I'll see you all next chapter, yes? I hope you enjoyed!  
_


	7. Covert Operations

_Disclaimer: Oh, if only...  
_

* * *

"No!" Valerie snapped, out of patience with her employer. "For the fifth and final time, no backup! Do you want this plan to fail miserably?" She glared at him hotly, fists propped on her hips. Thankfully, this fight wasn't public. Though she had no qualms about ruining his agents' opinions of him, she was sick and tired of this argument and ready to snap at the poor and unsuspecting should they so much as look over, let alone try to say something. The deserted corridor that Fury had decided to bring this point up with her was, all in all, the best choice. "I've told you that Hargreaves knows your agents! Even if she doesn't know all of them, with the exception of Natasha, none of them can blend in anywhere to save their life. If you want those schematics, you'll butt out and let me handle it. If you don't, then by all means, send hoards of idiots after her. I'm sure that'll work."

"No need to be sarcastic," Fury told her, maddeningly calm. "Now, about this plan of yours –"

"It's none of your business."

"You're stealing highly dangerous schematics from a madwoman," he pointed out, not for the first time. "And you're my employee. It most certainly is my business."

Valerie set her jaw and folded her arms tightly across her chest, adjusting her posture so that her spine resembled an iron poker. "We've been over the plan."

"Tell me again."

"Oh, of course," she agreed, sarcasm dripping from her cold words, "It's not as if I haven't already told you three times in the past two days."

His eye narrowed. Valerie let out an annoyed huff. "Fine. Loki and I get in, make some small chitchat, have some punch – you know, party stuff – then he makes a distraction, I go into the bowels of her castle, I get the stuff, get out, and we leave. Happy?"

By the look on his face, he wasn't. About ready to suggest that he should really start anger management classes because that much fury in one person (pun intended) could hardly be good for his blood pressure, she was prematurely interrupted. "I didn't ask for the cliffnotes version."

She groaned. Clearly, Fury wasn't going to leave her alone about this. "You're such a worrywart," she grumbled before sighing heavily. It seemed that she didn't have a choice; she'd have to explain the entire thing to him yet again. Honestly, it was getting old. "Fine. We get there, get in, and mingle for a bit. After a decent amount of time passes, Loki's going to make a distraction so that I can sneak past her goony guards and get into the restricted area of the house."

"And what distraction is Loki going to make?"

"I don't know and I don't want to know," Valerie said flatly. As far as she was concerned, the less she knew in that department, the better. "He assures me it'll work and that it won't end up in the destruction of earth or anything equally heinous, so I don't care."

"And you trust his word?"

She ignored him. "Anyway, after I get in there, there's going to be a lot of security to deal with. I'm going to have to bypass most of it by using her ventilation system."

"This is the part that worries me."

"Shut up. After I get past the majority of her safeguards, I'll exit the vents and sneak into her vault. From there it'll be a simple matter of disabling the security in there, stealing the schematics, and getting back out again. Once I'm back in the main rooms, Loki and I can slip out at any time."

Finished, Valerie relaxed and studied Fury carefully for his reaction. They both knew that there was no other option and that she'd get her way in the end, but he was a stubborn old goat that needed a lot of reassuring when he wasn't the one in charge of an operation. A very long moment passed before Fury heaved a sigh and rubbed his brow with his fingers. "I don't like this."

"I never would have guessed," she said seriously, swallowing the sarcastic tone that threatened to escape. He caught her meaning anyway and aimed a glare at her that she ignored. "Care to tell me which part?"

"All of it." The spy frowned. "You're involving Loki, you refuse to allow backup – I understand why," he added irritably when she opened her mouth to protest, "but that doesn't mean I have to like it."

"I'm not particularly thrilled either," she said wryly, very carefully not mentioning that the reasons that she disliked this plan weren't at all connected to the issues that Fury wasn't pleased about. "Guess we'll both just have to deal with it."

He was quiet for a long time after that, looking at her thoughtfully. Valerie couldn't help it; she shifted uncomfortably under his piercing gaze. It might have been a horrible thing to think, but she was devoutly thankful that he only had one eye, considering that with two he'd probably be a terror to talk to. He was bad enough with one. When Fury finally spoke, she was completely unprepared for the tender worry that washed over her in his tone. "Are you sure you can handle the ventilation shafts?"

Pride stiffened her spine and sharpened her voice. "Of course I can!" At his slightly disbelieving look, Valerie scowled at him, putting all the force of conviction she could behind her words. "I'm a professional, Fury. I can handle it."

His eyebrow raised. "If you're sure," he relented.

"Positive," Valerie replied firmly, suppressing the shudder that threatened to run down her spine. She'd done that sort of thing before in the line of duty, and she could and would do it again. "Now, unless there's anything else you want to rehash, I'm leaving."

She waited just long enough for Fury to shake his head minutely before whirling off in the direction of the hanger, her skirt whipping around her ankles angrily as she did so.

* * *

As agreed, Loki waited for her just outside the hanger doors. Owing to the need to wear formal Migardian clothing for such an occasion, he'd decided to go with something similar to what he'd worn the last time he'd barged his way into a formal event. From the jacket down to the shoes, everything was nearly identical to that last outfit, with the notable exceptions of a lack of a cane and a simply striped scarf in green and gold, two colors he was not willing to relinquish. When she finally stormed down the corridor to meet him, Loki was all set to mention in acerbic tones how late she was, but the words faded on his tongue as he got a good look at her.

For once, her hair wasn't pulled and braided tightly back from her face. Instead, she'd done something to a soft coil of braid to pin it to the back of her head, allowing her hair to cushion her face instead of pull at it. Her eyelashes were darkened, her cheeks colored with an artificial pale pink that was mimicked on her lips, and she wore a dark dress with a comparatively paler purple wrap that prevented him from seeing her shoulders. He was so used to seeing her in casual wear that he wasn't at all prepared for this sight, and he was shocked to realize that she was actually quite lovely.

For a mortal.

"What?" she wanted to know, obviously noticing his scrutiny.

Loki shook his head slightly, thinking it best not to mention her appearance. "You look annoyed," he said instead, opening the door with a touch and gesturing her through. That earned him an odd look that was quickly replaced by the annoyance he'd noticed in her approach.

"Good," she muttered, heading straight for the helicopter they were to take. "That means I don't look worried."

"Are you worried?"

She gave a noncommittal shrug as the helicopter set off. "Are you?"

Loki smiled sardonically. "I am not the one with cause to worry." She glared at him and he ignored her. "This is your game, not mine. I am simply here to help."

Her lips twisted into a smile of her own. "You mean you're here to get away from your brother," she corrected.

"Perhaps," Loki admitted reluctantly. "Still, I believe my point stands."

Valerie just sighed, losing her stiff posture and leaning against the curved wall in a way that he would have called defeated if not for the way her eyes lidded as she turned her attention inward, evidently turning some bit of information about in her mind. Loki frowned. Perhaps she was content to sit there and think; he was not. His thoughts would inevitably go to places that he had no desire to think about. Besides, he'd had enough contemplating over the past year to fill a mortal's lifespan.

It wasn't long before the silence stretched into the realm of unbearable. Loki interrupted the tense atmosphere with a quiet, smooth, "Care to say why you're so annoyed?"

For a moment he thought she wouldn't answer, but, "Fury," she supplied after a pause.

"Go on."

That earned him a look through narrowed eyes. Regardless of her annoyance, however, she did continue, her lips twitching upward ever so slightly as she did so. For whatever reason, what he said had amused her – or maybe the fact that she knew she didn't have to explain anything to him and yet she was entertained her. "He was being Fury." Valerie huffed and shook her head. "He wanted to rehash the plan yet _again _even though he's not involved and therefore it's none of his business –"

"I know the feeling."

"Of course you do. You have a sibling." She eyed him for a moment. "He also wanted to know about your little distraction."

Loki raised his eyebrow. "Did he now? And what did you tell him?"

"That I had no idea what you were planning but I was pretty sure it wouldn't bring about the end of the world," Valerie replied promptly, green eyes glittering with amusement. He smiled faintly; it was at Valerie's insistence that neither of them know the plan in its entirety. She refused to know the particulars of his part, and by the same token wouldn't tell him precisely how she planned to steal the schematics.

"It's safer this way," she'd told him before he'd even had the chance to ask. "If something goes horribly wrong, we minimize the damage by not being able to say everything."

"You do realize that if something does go wrong, you will bear the brunt of the blame," he'd pointed out. She'd shrugged.

"So?"

It hadn't been a response he could argue with.

Loki pulled himself out of the memory without reluctance. He had already decided that if something were to go wrong he would do his best to minimize the resulting catastrophe. It wasn't because of his conscience or a sense of chivalry that he was very unwilling to admit that he had. No, Valerie owed this choice entirely to her own determination that Loki couldn't help but admire, despite the fact that she was a mere mortal. Something like that couldn't just be ignored.

Besides, he was growing rather fond of her company. It was nice to talk to someone who didn't either hate him or completely misunderstood him, and he wasn't willing to give that up quite yet.

"Only sure?" he retorted lightly.

"Sure enough," she shot back quickly. "I don't think Fury understands that if you screw up there's going to be absolutely nothing you can do to get yourself out of it."

"I am hardly helpless." His voice was cold. On second thought, perhaps her company wasn't worth it at all.

"No, you're not," she agreed. "But we're going to a place filled to the brim with people who, let's face it, either work in the black or in the darker shades of gray. These are not nice folk. And they outnumber us by…" she trailed off, frowning in concentration. "Too many."

Loki pressed his lips together, unwilling to let himself smile at her gap of knowledge, and motioned for her to continue. Miraculously, she did so without so much as a complaint. "You won't be able to use your silver tongue to get out of any trouble you might get into with them – I've met some of these people. They're –" She paused. "Let's just say they aren't really into people."

She looked at him them, meeting his dark eyes with a steady gaze. "I know what I'm talking about, Loki. And you know I'm right."

"My magic –"

"Is gone," she said flatly. He froze. How had she known? "Do you really think I'm an idiot? You'd have used it by now if you had it."

Before he could say anything to that, she sighed and held a hand to her face, fingers touching her forehead and cheek. "I think we've gotten off topic."

Loki said nothing. He just looked at her, letting his anger fade away to nothing as she shifted to rest her cheekbone on curled fingers. Much as he hated to admit it, she did have a point. "I see now where your trust in me is based," he said quietly, breaking the silence that had fallen. She glanced up at him, nodded, and let her gaze shift back to the floor.

"Mostly," she murmured.

"Mostly?"

Her shoulders lifted and fell in a very deliberate shrug, but she remained silent. Loki watched her for a long moment before knotting his hands together and resting his elbows on his knees, placing his chin on his woven fingers. There was absolutely no point in trying to restart the conversation now, or even in starting a new one, if he was reading the faint worry Valerie was trying so desperately to hide right. She wasn't going to play along, that much was obvious.

And so the two remained quiet and still, one looking at the floor, though not really looking at anything at all, and one with his eyes set firmly on his companion, until the helicopter landed.

* * *

According to the plans Valerie had somehow managed to get her hands on, the mansion wasn't really a mansion at all, but an old factory converted to act like one. Nobody knew just why this had been done, since the lack of windows meant that nobody in their right mind would ever live there, but it did make for a good place to hide things, even big gatherings of people. Actually, that might have been the reason it was created in the first place. Certainly none of the criminals she knew liked to hang around places of grime and filth. They tended to get into the business for riches, after all.

Of course, she hadn't, but then again her situation wasn't exactly normal. Not by any standards.

It had been quite a walk to the converted factory from where the helicopter had landed, but she hadn't minded. She had no idea if Loki did or not; the man was infuriatingly difficult to read when he closed up, and he wasn't saying anything with words or body language. When the place was finally in sight, however, he offered her his arm. Surprised, Valerie hesitated just long enough for his arm to start to lower before she made up her mind and laid her hand on his forearm. It was telling that his arm didn't tense beneath her fingers, and she assumed (rightly, she would later learn) that though this was a courtesy humans had long since foregone, Asgard hadn't tossed it away.

Still, Valerie didn't say anything about it as they entered the building easily using the password that she'd wrestled from Tobias earlier. The guards Hargreaves had hired either didn't know who she was or weren't being paid enough to care, and they let her and Loki in without any questions. Once they were in, her hand slipped off of Loki's arm. He didn't react, he simply lowered his arm and began a careful sweep of the place with his eyes.

The splendor that greeted them was probably meant to intimidate and incite jealousy, but Valerie just skimmed the tapestries, staircase, and hideously expensive rugs and electric chandeliers with a critical eye, looking for the door she'd have to take to get into the ventilation undetected. Just as she found it, however, someone hurried up towards her and her jaw tightened.

"Friend of yours?" was the first thing Tobias said when he got close enough to talk without yelling. She glared at him.

"What do you want?" she demanded in a low hiss. "People know you know me and if they see you here –"

"Yeah, you're trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, I get it." He leveled a calm look at her. "Going to tell me what this is all about?"

"No." She was tart and cold in her response. He frowned at her.

"Fine." The frown turned to a look of appreciation and he glanced up and down her body. "You clean up nice."

An angry flush spread across her cheekbones. "You have no right."

"So I can't pay a compliment to a beautiful lady?"

"If the lady in question objects to it, then certainly not," Loki interrupted, his voice a soothing balm to Valerie's roused temper. Tobias's face went stony.

"Do you care to introduce us?" Loki continued, glancing at her curiously, a glint of malicious humor sparkling in his eyes. For a moment, Valerie pretended to consider it before shaking her head slightly.

"Not really."

"How very rude of you," he chided lightly. "It is customary to introduce one's friends to one's partner, is it not?"

"Partner?" Tobias stared at them in shock. Anger slowly took over, clenching his jaw and hardening his eyes. Valerie ignored him.

"Friends, yes. Scum on the face of the earth, not so much."

"Ah."

"Now, look here –" Tobias started. Valerie silenced him with a look that she'd carefully perfected over the years, designed to make the target's innards turn to ice. By the look on Tobias's face, it worked.

"You do realize you have no claim on me, right?" she wanted to know, keeping her voice light and breezy. "You gave that up years ago." A smirk tugged at her lips and she let it show. "Besides, you, jealous? Of a business partner? I never realized I was so _useful _ to you."

Anger flashed in his eyes. "I'd never be jealous of anybody that has to put up with you."

"Great. Be a good little boy and be an obnoxious pig somewhere else. The rest of us actually have work to do." She patted his cheek in the most condescending way she could manage before stalking off. As she left, the touch of cool fingers trailed her wrist briefly, a silent acknowledgement that the plan could proceed whenever she was ready. Behind her, she heard, "I take it you drink?"

A pause. Then, gruffly: "Yeah."

"Come along, then. It would be best not to ruin such a… distinctive gathering by allowing her to anger you."

A subtle, sideways glance told her that Loki had succeeded in escorting Tobias towards the refreshments. Satisfied, Valerie refocused her attention on the door that ultimately led the way to the treasure, and set off in completely the opposite direction.

* * *

_A/N: No excuse. I have no excuse for this chapter being so horrendously late. Gah. It was originally supposed to have another section, but I couldn't get it to work and I was super late anyways, so... this is what you get. I'm so sorry about the lateness of the chapter, and I'll try to be more timely with the next one. I hope you enjoyed, and, with any luck, I'll see you lovely readers in the next chapter!  
_


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